Short move will give K&E bigger space

The 24-employee firm in May will move from a 12,500-square-foot location in East Arlington, Vt., to a 32,000-square-foot building in Bennington, about 10 miles away.

The proximity of the new location will allow K&E to retain its employees, Vice President Eric Broderson said in a Dec. 28 phone interview. Some cosmetic and electrical work needs to be done to the new building — which has been vacant for less than a year — before K&E makes the move.

Broderson said the entire cost of the move, including purchasing the building, will be less than $1 million. The larger building will allow K&E to have a “better work flow and organization layout,” he added, as well as making it easier for the firm to add equipment and machinery over time.

K&E hopes to add one or two production workers during 2013. The firm’s 2012 sales were up 20 percent to about $4 million, and Broderson said sales growth for 2013 could be even higher. The firm has seen solid growth in medical and aerospace work. Projects for the naval market represent K&E’s largest end sector.

K&E uses computer numerically controlled machinery — including vertical milling centers and lathes — to shape parts made from a variety of specialty and engineering resins. Parts made by K&E can range in size from subminiature to 4 feet by 7 feet. The firm was founded in Long Valley, N.J., in 1966 by Broderson’s father, Peter, who is now retired. In the mid-1980s, K&E moved to East Dorset, Vt., and then to East Arlington in 1999.